Riding the long, dusty trail through 50s Westerns.

50s Westerns DVD News #47: The Halliday Brand (1957)

This just in (courtesy of Henry Cabot Beck). Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s MOD program has announced the latest round of its MGM’s Limited Edition Collection. One of them is Joseph H.Lewis’ The Halliday Brand (1957). This is a picture I haven’t seen in eons. With Lewis and that cast, I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

Other Westerns on the way: Quincannon, Frontier Scout (1956) and Gun Duel In Durango (1957).

Not a Western, but also part of this batch of titles is Budd Boetticher’s The Killer Is Loose (1956). Released the same year as Seven Men From Now, this is not to be missed.

4 Responses

There were problems with “ghosting” due to a faulty
transcoder on some of the earlier issues but Allied Vaughn
(the people that produce these MODs) have now solved
this problem.According to some folks on the Home Theatre
Forum Allied Vaughn have replaced those faulty discs.
I must say all the discs that I have purchased in this series
have been first rate!
Apart from the Westerns I am really excited about
“The Killer Is Loose” a little known but excellent Boetticher
with a career best performance from Wendell Corey.
Only yesterday on the John Payne thread I was saying how
much I would like to see “The Boss” on DVD.
This is a great Film Noir with brilliant set-pieces;nice to see
underrated William Bishop as a good guy for a change!
I find it rather amusing that MGM the Studio that did not
do B movies is now putting out the back cataloge of
United Artists and American International.
A Question: As the parent company is Fox could it be
possible that some of the Regalscope stuff might surface
on this imprint? Also some of those lost Maury Dexter
gems like “Walk Tall” “House Of The Damned” “The Day
Mars Invaded Earth” and so on.
Anyway thanks,HCB this has really made my day;one
things for sure the people at MGM MOD certainly know
what titles to put out!

“The Boss” was written by a blacklisted Dalton Trumbo;
the final shot is astounding! Cannot wait to replace my
horrid off-air copy with a sparkling new print.
Whatever became of leading lady Gloria McGee?

When MGM did the Midnite Movies thing occasionally
some Fox titles would filter through;so maybe there is
some hope for the Regalscope stuff;it would certainly
tie-in with the sort of films being released in this series.

Watched “Ghost Town” the other night;in my opinion
its the best of three ultra-cheap Westerns Allen Miner did
round about the same time (The Ride Back;Black Patch)

What surprised me was that the iconic lone figure in a doorway shot pops up a couple of times in the film.
Even stranger that “Ghost Town” was released several
months before “The Searchers”!